Are there any maps for European countries provided with Manifold, France or Switzerland, for example?  / If there are, do you include all the layers included in DCW, hypsography, river-system, etc.? - Yes.  The Manifold DVD includes the complete Digital Chart of the World as well as the complete Manifold World Volume 1 collection.

I'm an international customer and cannot use your  800 number ... how can I place an order? - Most international phone companies can place a call to a US 800 number, but it will not be free of charge as it would be if the call originated in the US.  If you are purchasing with a credit card, please visit the Manifold.net Online Store and place your order there.  If you cannot use a credit card, please send prepayment via check or money order directly to manifold.net by regular, hard-copy mail.  Click on the red manifold.net menu button in the upper right hand corner of our page for company info.  Please see the Shopping page for more details on international ordering.

Can I download a copy ? -  No.  Manifold System ships on DVD. If you have a Manifold DVD you can order additional licenses using "License Only" shipping method to get additional serial numbers for additional installations.  Note that you must have a current release Manifold DVD to use current release "License Only" licenses.

What sort of documentation comes with Manifold? - The System ships with over 5000 pages of electronic documentation organized within the Microsoft Help system.  This provides outline-style navigation, index searches, and keyword searches.    Release 7.00 documentation includes over 1200 topics, and over 4000 full-color illustrations.  The manual includes numerous comprehensive examples.  The entire User Manual has been converted to HTML form and placed on this web site for your review. 

How difficult is it to learn Manifold? -  You'll have no trouble if a) you are familiar with computers, b) you are familiar with Microsoft Office and similar Microsoft ways of working with computers and (most important) c) you can read documentation and work through a few examples. It takes about one to two days of reading the first few chapters in the documentation and working through the Help examples to learn Manifold if you already are familiar with Windows.  This initial investment is essential to understand how to use Manifold and should not be skipped.  Once you have the basic framework in place, it's easy to add understanding of additional features as they are required because the entire system works within a few key concepts.  However, if you do not give yourself the chance to learn those key concepts up front, Manifold has far too many features and capabilities to guess your way through the program.  Experienced Windows users who have learned both Manifold and other GIS packages of similar sophistication tell us that Manifold is better documented and easier to learn.  One factor that helps is that Manifold has been created entirely within recent versions of Windows using Microsoft dialogs and nomenclature whenever possible, so it uses standard Windows methods at all times.  For example, the same Microsoft dialog you've seen in many applications is used for choosing colors.  This means that many dialogs will be instantly familiar to a Windows user, with attendant reduction in learning time.

Where do I get maps for Manifold? - Use the maps on the Manifold DVD to start. You can also use the built-in converters to convert maps from MapInfo MIF/MID, ESRI SHP,  ESRI .E00, TIGER, SDTS, VPF, DLG, and AutoCAD DXF or DWG formats, as well as over 75 other formats.  Manifold can read terrain elevation data and satellite photos in all popular formats.  US government servers are a great source for hundreds of thousands of free maps and data sets.  Since Manifold can import data from Oracle OCI, ODBC, OLE DB, ADO .NET databases as well as file-oriented database formats like DBF, XLS, MDB and many others, numerous "text" and other format databases may be used to create maps.  The Manifold DVD also includes a complete copy of the Digital Chart of the World, Manifold World volume 1 and the NASA Blue Marble images of the Earth.

Detail:  A map of gold mines in the California Sierra Nevada foothills region colored by elevation in 500 foot increments from Red to Blue.  The San Francisco Bay is just visible at lower left with the California / Nevada border at upper right. Click on the image to see a full screen 1024 x 768 screen shot  of this map.

Can I Import ESRI® Files? -   Yes.   Manifold System Release 7.00 imports data from ESRI's openly published "Shape" format (used with ArcView®, but also used by other ESRI products).  .e00 files may also be imported, as can ESRI ".bil" terrain elevation files and numerous other ESRI file standards.

How can I import grids from ESRI products?  - .e00 is the preferred format for importing grid files from ESRI products. However, ArcInfo can export raster data using "gridascii" format either as integer or floating point data which Manifold also reads.. There appear to be no standard extensions for such files in universal use within the ESRI community. We suggest saving (or renaming) such files to use either a .grd extension for integer data or an .flt extension for floating point data. Use the File - Import  -Surface importer set to GRD files for integer data and FLT files for floating point data. However, you can also read a native ESRI grid by importing ADF, and going into the directory where the Grid is. Some experienced ESRI users have found that prj.ADF imports the best.  (Experienced ArcInfo users will know the above discussion relates more to the varied practice in the ESRI world than it does to any limitation of Manifold!)

Can I Import MapInfo®  Files? - Yes.   Manifold System Release 7.00 imports data from MapInfo's MIF/MID format files as well as from MapInfo TAB format.  Manifold also imports Surfer files just fine.

Can I Import AutoCAD® Files?  - Yes.  Manifold System Release 7.00 imports data from AutoCAD's DXF and DWG files in version 13, 14, or 15.

Can I export to ESRI or MapInfo? - Yes. Manifold's Export Tool will export to ESRI .SHP, MapInfo MIF/MID, and AutoCAD DXF.

What projections do you support? -   Manifold supports thousands of popular geographic projections with fully customizable parameters, as well as all Earth ellipsoid models known to the US Department of Defense (including a huge library of historical or international ellipsoids).  These include all of the State Plane Coordinate System and UTM zones, organized in an easily accessible way.  See the Manifold System 7.00 home page for a complete list of projections and default ellipsoids.  The 7.00 set of ellipsoids and projections is so large that it covers essentially all projections and ellipsoids encountered in over 80 different countries.

Can Manifold do datum conversions using NTv2 or NADCON? Yes.  Manifold will automatically use these where applicable and will allow use of custom "grid" files.

Can I reproject images with Manifold?  - Yes. Manifold 7.00 can reproject any drawing, image, surface or labels component from any projection to any other projection.

Can I georegister images with Manifold?  - Yes.  Manifold 7.00 can georegister any component to any other component.  You can georegister an image to a vector drawing, a drawing to another drawing, an image to a known good surface, etc, etc.

How do I make maps like those in printed atlases or like your website examples? - Easy - start with an appropriate data set (usually downloaded for free from the web) and then format it to taste.   This can be as simple or as elaborate as you like.  Any map can only be as good as the data set from which it is made.  Cool maps with lots of neat features usually have a cool data set that has been well organized into lots of cleverly formatted layers.   With interesting data, one can easily create maps of breathtaking aesthetic merit within Manifold.  The data sets we provide, like the USGS maps on the Manifold DVD and the DCW data set on the DVD site, are data-oriented maps for professional and technical use.  Making them pretty requires some thought, good taste in the selection of colors and styles, and a little practise. Manifold's autoformatting feature (used to create the Himalayas map example in the download section) makes the job a lot easier. Release 7.00 considerably broadens the number and type of formatting features to make map drawing an easier process.  For example, 7.00 includes the ColorBrewer palettes that have been designed to make it easy for newbies to choose color schemes that look good and work well in visual cartography.

How do I locate a spot in a map? - Most people prefer to use names and not coordinates.  The best way is to load whatever map you wish and to then insert one of the place name data sets from the Manifold DVD.   Then, load the name of the place desired into the SQL toolbar and hit Select.   You can now center the selection using the Center Select button.  If you like to use coordinates, you can use the GO TO command to center a specific coordinate location, a named spot, a selection of objects, a layer or even an entire map.  If you have the Geocoding Tools extension installed, you can Go To a particular zip code, town or address.

Sounds like a fine viewer.  Do you have spatial analysis?  - Yes.  Manifold 7.00 has the most sophisticated spatial analytics of any GIS. Manifold provides buffer zones, Voronoi cells, contour line drawing, point / surface interpolation, and a vast array of other spatial analytics, including by far the most sophisticated Spatial SQL in GIS.  Manifold has better spatial analysis than any other GIS system no matter how expensive; however, Manifold costs only $245, not thousands of dollars.  See the Manifold System 7.00 home page for links to 7.00 information and to the complete 7.00 user manual. 

I'd like to create my new buffer zone (or other object) in a different layer.  Can I do that?  - Sure.  There are point and click buffer tools in the transform toolbar, or you can use spatial SQL for those who prefer that approach.  

How do I import data from other applications? - Manifold reads over 80 different GIS formats and database formats.  That means you can create databases with Microsoft products such as Access and directly import the data into Manifold.  Manifold also can import data in sophisticated ways from Oracle OCI, ODBC, OLE DB, or ADO .NET compliant data sources.  You can also use a host of converters to fetch data from ESRI .shp, MapInfo mif/mid, VPF, SDTS, TIGER/Line, DLG-O, or AutoCAD .dxf.  Manifold 7.00 can read data from almost any vector, raster, image, terrain elevation or database format, over 80 in all.  More importantly, Manifold makes it possible to freely convert within data types: for example, an imported geocoded table can be copied and pasted as a vector drawing, or a map with many vector drawing and image layers can be saved as an image, or a surface can be converted to an image and on, and on.

Can you just send me a unit and bill me? - We require either payment by credit card, prepayment by company check for all customers except government agencies.  Government agencies may order by PO. We ship on receipt of a hard-copy purchase order from government agencies.  We are unable to bill without a hardcopy purchase order. You may also attach a purchase order with PO number to email for electronic ordering. 

What is your address for POs and Payments? - Manifold Net Ltd., 1945 North Carson Street, Suite 700, Carson City, Nevada 89701

Do you have language versions other than English? - Not at this time.

Can you work with data over a network? - Yes.  Manifold has sophisticated features for working over networks, including the Manifold Internet Map Server and the ability to connect to a variety of spatial data types, including image servers, via networks.

Does Manifold include an Internet Map Server? Yes.  The Manifold Internet Map Server (IMS) is built into every edition except Personal Edition.  Manifold IMS includes the ability to serve via HTML, OGC WMS, OGC WFS-T (that is, using transactions to edit from a client data on the server) and even functioning as an Image Server like TerraServer.

Does Manifold have an objects toolkit?  Yes.  Every copy of Manifold exposes the full Manifold API and includes a scripting debugger.  You don't need to buy some special "developer's edition" or "object toolkit."  If you have a Manifold license of any kind you can program Manifold. 

Can I create my own application on Manifold and then ship as many copies as I want royalty free? No.  You can create applications using Manifold but you must then install a Manifold license on any computer that will use such applications. The least expensive way to do so is to use a Runtime license.  For example, quantity one a Professional Runtime license is only $100 and a Universal Runtime license is only $225.

Do you have any warranties or guarantees? - We provide a limited warranty: see the License document in the User Manual. Manifold products are generally not refundable.  For general terms and conditions, including the limited 30 day refund available for some editions of Manifold System, see the Manifold Purchasing and Sales Information page.

Does Manifold come with a conversion program for common map formats, like *.dxf or *.e00 export files? - Yes. Release 7.00 includes support for over 80 different vector, raster, terrain elevation, satellite photographic and database formats.  All are included at no additional charge.

Is it possible to build new maps from scratch, out of digitalized data in x,y ascii or *.txt format? Yes! two ways: a) import data from comma-separated value text files, or b) use a database like Microsoft Access to create a .mdb file (our native data format, the same as Access) from any one of many different types of database files, and then read that file directly.   The database capability within Release 7.00  has grown so much that Manifold now can read virtually any database format directly.  Manifold also provides free download utilities to read network descriptions in a variety of text formats.  See the "Free Manifold Stuff" link on the Products page.

Are there any trial copies? - There is a trial edition for Manifold Database Commander.  We don't provide downloadable, trial copies for Manifold System.  Manifold products are generally not refundable.  For general terms and conditions, including the limited 30 day refund available for some editions of Manifold System, see the Manifold Purchasing and Sales Information page.

Why is there so little corporate information on your web site?  Other than what is on the website, we do not publish information on manifold.net or affiliated companies.   By doing so, we focus attention on the product, which we believe should be the emphasis of all branding activities.  This also has the benefit of filtering out prospects who are not product-centric.  We believe that our most important sales and marketing objective is to create a customer pool of highly product-centric customers, because only they can help us evolve the product as rapidly and as effectively as we would like.  This marketing strategy also has the benefit of being distinctive, in that other companies with poor technology or slowly-evolving products cannot compete with us in a product-centric presentation.  It is understandable they would want to talk about anything else except product, whereas with Manifold the only thing to talk about is product so product comparisons (which always work to our benefit) are unavoidable